See Canyon To Bear Canyon Lake

[te_wa]

MAY 16-17th
I will be hiking on the See Canyon trail alongside the stately Promontory Butte to the top of the Mogollon Rim, where I will then follow FR208 to the south end of Bear Canyon lake for camping and fly fishing.

The distance each way looks about 6 miles. See Canyon is steep in spots and can be a leg burner, but only for about 1/2 of its length. (It starts near Christopher Creek in a beautiful setting) After climbing to the top of the trail, we head due East cross country for about 1000' until we reach 208. Then, its an easy dirt road walk to the edge of a shallow hillside where we will hike downhill and make camp on the south side of Bear Canyon Lake. Trout are hungry after spending a winter season w/ out much to eat. Fish on!
Returning Sunday will likely require the obligatory Beeline Cafe Chocolate Malt.

please prepare for temps down to freezing. Weather averages for this area are 67/34°
i dont expect many visitors to Bear Canyon this time of year. most dont yet know the fr300 is even open ;)

i live in Ftn. Hills so carpool is in order. Mike

[chumley]

i dont expect many visitors to the Rim lakes this time of year. most dont yet know the fr300 is even open ;)

Good luck with that!

I read the AZGFD fishing report last week, and the lakes are freshly stocked, and a boatload (no pun intended) of people are up there. Woods Canyon store is open and doing very brisk business. I know of several different groups of campers, hikers, and anglers who have been waiting for months to get back up there and all have trips planned in the next few weeks.

Nonetheless, you should be able to make a fun trip out of it! If I'm in the area, perhaps I'll come visit. I'll know its you because you'll be the one fishing from a hammock, right?

[te_wa]

for one thing, Woods Canyon Lake is a touron trap and I dont visit there much..
Chevelon and Bear Canyon are still ours, hopefully for a few more years anyway..

[BobP]

I've never seen more than 5 cars/trucks at Bear Canyon. When I go on Fridays(during the day), I have it to myself most of the time. Most people go to Woods/Willow Springs which is fine by me.

[allanalxndr]

I'll keep an eye out for this one, see if I can fit it into my schedule.

[te_wa]

I've never seen more than 5 cars/trucks at Bear Canyon.

thats usually the case, save for special holidays.. the bonus about a 1/4 mile steep canyon hike is nobody wants to walk more than 200' from their cars.. i myself could join the fray and drive all the way to the parking lot, but id rather make a nice hike out of the whole ordeal. Plus, See Canyon has its own special charms to enjoy. ('specially if those charms are growing in canyon bottom, out of view from the "man" )

[trekkin_gecko]

of only three rattlesnakes i've seen in ten years of hiking AZ, two of them were on see canyon trail in the same day. one of them scared the @#$% out of me, sitting right in the middle of the trail. the other one was curled up on a log next to the trail.

[aa7jc]

Sounds like an awesome trip..

[aa7jc]

Sounds like an awesome trip..

Yeah.. Looks like a strong possibility I will commit on this one... Of course I will have to get a head start on you guys again but hey, I want to get there early enough to fish a little..

[Crocodile Ryan]

Hmm this sounds interesting, although I will, as usual, be just getting back into town, So I will have to play it by ear

[te_wa]

Sharkbait, you may be able to get the BB for this trip.. Ryan also hangs.
I will be bringing my small grille for the campfire trout dinner.
intersting, there are hardly any triplogs for spring for either see canyon or bear canyon lake. only a couple in May so check out those photosets.. they show some great scenery!

cant wait.. im out of hiking ability due to other commitments so this will be a much needed stomp after 3 weeks away from the trail... hope you can all make it!

[aa7jc]

Sharkbait, you may be able to get the BB for this trip.. Ryan also hangs.

Sure nuff, I have a BB on order (double 1.1).. I really don't expect it will be here for a month or so though.. No problem for me.. I love my Gatewood Cape.

I will be bringing my small grille for the campfire trout dinner.

[te_wa]

brandon is busy filling orders, the bb is on fire!
plus, he's trying to get some done for trail days in damascus, va.
poor guy. remind me, if i ever design and build the best hammock in the world, hire help... ;)
as it turns out, i may be taking my kid camping with us. he's of hiking age now, but has no gear.. im thinking of making an extra UQ so he can use my bridge. he has no b'packing experience. if i ever had a chance as a hike leader, this may be the time to shine

[rally_toad]

Te-wa Im curious, is your fishing gear UL too? I've actually kinda wanted to get into fishing, but really dont know the first thing about the gear or anything.

[te_wa]

let me put it this way: i paid $50 for a fishing license this year, im going to fish but for the record, fishing rods have been made with carbon for decades. it just now showing up in hiking gear. There's always room in my pack for equipment that can catch fresh, tasty trout for the grille with lemon and pepper!

my rig is a 5wt fly rod in a packable, 7pc contruction. fits into a tube about 18" long.

*please note: we will be arriving at the south end of the lake where most dont go, only the hardiest fisherman will walk 2 miles to get to that side. good chance we'll have the whole area to ourselves anyway.

[BobP]

Ok. After getting shutout at Knoll Lake Fri, I'm ready to catch some fish. I did the Babe Haught trail to Knoll and that was awesome. I'm one of those ultra heavy backpackers and I will be in my 2 person Condo tent.

[jaysmith]

MAY 16-17th

please prepare for temps down to freezing. Weather averages for this area are 67/34°
i dont expect many visitors to Bear Canyon this time of year. most dont yet know the fr300 is even open ;)

i live in Ftn. Hills so carpool is in order. Mike

You should be in for a great trip! Wish I could tag along and meet some people to hike with!

I was on the Rim almost 2 weeks ago fishing, and the road was open and dry. Weather should be awesome for you guys!

[te_wa]

I will be in my 2 person Condo tent

so will I, if the Mogollon Monster comes callin'

[BobP]

The REAL STORY . He doesn't scare me

Meet the Real Mogollon Monster
March 04, 2005 By Jim Cook Topic: Journal of Prevarication


It pains me to take issue with a newspaperman, because I know how it feels to have readers jump on you.

One reader complains that the newspaper is too liberal, and the next claims that the paper is too conservative, and the third reader wants you to correct an error made by some other writer.

But I have to quarrel with Clay Thompson. Clay is a columnist for The Arizona Republic, the daily newspaper where I labored for thirty-two years, seven months and nine days.

Clay wrote Friday of the Mogollon Monster, suggesting it is a fictitious creature, not to be taken seriously. He quoted one shaky account of a “cryptozoology investigator” who encountered the monster in the 1940s. Cryptozoology is the study of cryptids, or “hidden animals,” such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.

Clay should have phoned me first. I knew the Mogollon Monster. His name was Opie. We were kids together, you might say.

Clay probably forgot that I spent a good part of my childhood on the Mogollon Rim–right on top, where it forms the boundary between Gila and Coconino counties. (For the edification of our subscribers in Saskatoon, the Rim is a big cliff that runs halfway across central Arizona, rising to 7,000 feet and more in elevation, 2,000 feet higher than the land at its base.)

I’ve heard speculation by my cohorts that the Monster is the unfortunate result of a liaison between a grizzly bear and a member of one of the pioneer families in the Rim country. Not true. The last grizzly in Arizona was killed in 1901.

Others say he’s Bigfoot’s cousin, a restless fugitive from Humboldt County, California. Many Californians come to Arizona because housing is cheaper here, but that shouldn’t lure a yeti.

Fans of alliteration say that if there isn’t a Mogollon Monster, there should be one.

Well, there is. His real name is Opie Wolfbagel –christened Orpheus Peter Wolfbagel, which his parents shortened to “O.P.” when he was just a baby.

He is one of the Louisiana Wolfbagels, a hard-luck outfit much like the Mississippians William Faulkner wrote about–poor, friendless people who “endure, and endure, and endure.”

The family had been to California in the late 1930s, looking for milk and honey, and they were on their way back to Louisiana, broke, traveling in an old school bus–all 13 of them. Opie’s dad, Clarence, was trying to avoid U.S. Route 66, because he had driven away from a service station in Barstow without paying for the gas.

That’s how the Wolfbagels ended up eastbound on the Rim Road, a dirt track, unpaved even now, right along the lip of the Rim. They stopped at Hi View Point for the breathtaking view of the Payson country below.

Opie wandered too near the edge and fell over. He caught the limb of a tree on the way down, and just hung there. He couldn’t call for help. He had been chewing on a fir cone to see what it tasted like, and it was stuck in his mouth.

Pretty soon, the Wolfbagels got into their bus and left, and Opie was still hanging from the tree limb, out of sight beneath the Rim. He was never sure whether his mother forgot to take a headcount, or his dad was just too impatient to look for him.

Opie also had his pockets full of rocks he had admired. While he was hanging there, his arms and his body stretched. The added length finally allowed him to swing in toward the cliff and get a toe hold, literally, since he had no shoes. It was the summer of 1938.

Opie was a big kid before he fell off the cliff. When he climbed back up, he had stretched to almost seven feet tall. Once back on top, he lived by his wits, eating roots, berries, fir cones and raw trout he found in the little streams that run north from the Rim.

Now and then, he’d steal grub from the camps of fishermen or hunters.. Forest Service firefighters, working in the darkness to knock down a small fire, would see a tall, shaggy creature skulking off into the darkness, carrying their fire chuck.

My brother Dean and I met Opie while we were trying to sneak up on beavers at a beaver dam in General Springs Canyon. We never actually saw a beaver–as we tried to creep within sight of the beaver lodge, we’d hear the beaver slap the water with his tail and dive into his lodge.

Opie was trying to sneak up on the beaver, too. The stench of him probably alerted the beaver. Opie jumped into the pond after the beaver, but the pond was only a couple of feet deep.

Opie came up with mud clinging to the hair that grew all over his face and body. He lumbered away a few steps, then stood behind an aspen sapling and looked curiously at Dean and me.

We were able to strike up a conversation. Over a few weeks, we learned the story of how he had been left hanging from Hi View Point. We’d sneak him leftover biscuits from the breakfast table.

We decided it would not be wise to tell our parents about Opie. Grownups have funny ideas sometimes. They scare easily. Opie was a little reckless, but Dean and I decided he meant no harm.

Opie told us funny stories about the first time he grabbed hold of a porcupine, and how he learned not to imitate a bull elk.

He told funny stories of raiding group campgrounds where fishermen gathered to fish and drink. He said the best time to scare the living hell out of them was when the moon was going down.

Reports started going around about “the Mogollon Monster.” Opie said he liked being called that.

He didn’t say so in so many words–his language was limited–but he thought that was a good calling: raiding camps, shaking folks up, giving them stories to tell around their campfires. It was a living.

Timing is everything. Arizona would soon fill up with people, and the Rim would be a prime destination for nature lovers.

I haven’t actually seen Opie in more than fifty years, but I’ve heard occasional reports, some highly exaggerated. The Opie I knew would never eat six children in one night.

If you’re camped out up in the Rim country on a really dark night, and you see a tall, smelly, hairy apparition slipping through the trees, that would be the Mogollon Monster. You’ll automatically qualify as a cryptozoologist.

[chumley]

How many of these can be attributed to the Mogollon Monster?
http://www.hikearizona.com/dex2/viewtop ... fro#p24154